Thursday, June 8, 2017

Shin Megami Tensei 4-2's Downloadable Content

I was not terribly impressed with the downloadable content for the original Shin Megami Tensei 4, if you remember. There wasn’t enough substance to them, they were overpriced, and the only 1 that was notable was also an example of how DLC is used for dishonest business practices. But hey, Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse, known on this blog as SMT4-2, is generally a better RPG than its predecessor, so maybe it’ll have a better bunch of add-ons, too! Let’s find out.

As always, this only rates DLC that could conceivably be worth paying for--in other words, add-ons with some form of story content. It’s your business if you want to delete your money for the sake of pointless cosmetic changes and experience/money/jewel/whatever grinding, but I’m not going to rate it myself.

Fall of Tokyo Promo Video: Does this count? Eh, I think it counts. Basically, this is a free DLC which just gives you the option to watch the original anime promotional video for the game back when it was announced as an upcoming title. It seems like it must have been made before the plot was really hammered down for the project, because it shows a vastly different scenario for how Nanashi gains his smartphone and makes a contract with Dagda. Really, after the initial part of the video that shows the creation of the Firmament over Tokyo, nothing about this has anything to do with the game’s events.

Still, it’s cool to watch and totally free, so I don’t really have any complaints on this.

The Inverted Pyramid: Not a good start to the paid DLCs. Much like the DLC packages for SMT4-1, this is just a brief bit of narration, a couple of battles, and then you unlock a demon (Cleopatra) for fusion purposes. $2 might not be much money, but you’re still being overcharged for a DLC that takes, what, 20 minutes to get through? Tops?

It’s also not much to speak of in terms of the actual story. It’s just a tiny little side venture in which you investigate some missing girls, 1 of which happens to be Asahi, and find that a bunch of demons from Egyptian mythology have been trying to resurrect Cleopatra, because...well, just because, really. You fight them, you fight a 90% complete Cleopatra, you save Asahi while being given the option to say that her nose is super sexy, the end. Boring and totally superfluous. I’ll grant you that Cleopatra is actually a pretty useful minion, but unless you’ve been aching for the last 50 hours of gameplay to tell Asahi how much she appeals to your nasal fetish, I say skip this one.

Lore 1, 2, + 3: No point in separating these. These 3 DLCs simply each put a new entry into the game’s codex to read, regarding parallel universes, the concept of Observation, and a chronology of the game’s historical background. It’s useful background lore for reference, not exactly giving new information, but helpfully solidifying your knowledge of the concepts and events the game builds itself on. All 3 entries are free, and benefit the player’s understanding of the game’s story, so this set gets a thumbs-up from me.

A Trip to Hawaii: And I thought the Cleopatra DLC was poor. You meet up with a demon named Mephisto, he lets you go on a pretend beach trip with your party members, he tries to take your soul, you fight him, and once he’s defeated, you can fuse him for your own uses. At least with Cleopatra, that was an actual side adventure, small and useless though it was. This is just totally worthless.

Oh, and Japan? It seems like maybe you haven’t noticed, but the internet? It exists. I know you really want to capitalize off your horny customer base with a little bathing suit fanservice, but if I want to get my rocks off to SMT4-2’s party members, or the royals of Fire Emblem 14, or any other fictional character ever conceived, it is a single image search away. And they won’t be obscured by bathing suits, they won’t take as long to download, and they won’t cost me $2.50. Hell, said pics were created and freely available before the damn game released.

Explosive Epidemic in Mikado: This one’s a bit better, I suppose. This is a side story for the game path where you decide to be a hypocritical giant douchebag and side with Dagda, in which Nanashi goes to Mikado and kills everyone there, partially because they’re turning into demons and partially because in this route Nanashi’s just the kind of fucktard who likes genocide. You go through Mikado, fighting various residents and finding out what’s going on as you do so, until you reach Hugo and get the rest of the story as to where this epidemic came from. As a side story, it’s okay, I guess, and it at least ties a little into the plot of the game (well, 1 route of the game), unlike Cleopatra and Mephisto’s nonsense. At the same time, though, not a lot comes of this, from a story perspective, and it’s a pretty forgettable sequence of events. Not as big a waste of time and money as the previous 2 paid DLC packages, but still not worth the $2.

Messiahs in the Diamond Realm: This one’s actually kind of neat...while still not being very good. In this DLC, you’re called away to a realm between realities by Stephen, for the purpose of helping the main characters of each previous numbered Shin Megami Tensei become ready to fulfill their roles as Messiah to each of their respective realities. Whereas A Trip to Hawaii was stupid, mindless fanservice that mildly insults the player, this is the good kind of fanservice, much like Mass Effect 3’s Citadel DLC: a pandering to fans not by trying to take advantage of their base instincts, but rather by working with their love for the series and their longtime devotion to your products. It’s fun to see Nanashi help, interact with, and fight alongside the protagonists of SMT 1, 2, and 3 (and 4-1, I guess, but since that naturally happens in SMT4-2 anyway, it’s less of a big deal). It also plays to nostalgia by making the dungeon you’re going through very reminiscent of the old school first-person dungeons of SMT1 and 2, complete with the original music for them. Neat! And the DLC finishes with a very challenging boss battle against an enemy that will be kind of exciting for long-time SMT fans.

Beyond nostalgia, though...well, it’s not really all that interesting. I mean, it’s not bad, or anything, but there’s just not much that happens here. It’s fun, but not particularly meaningful, to meet up with the Demifiend, Flynn, Aleph, and Kazuya, and the battle at the end just seems to be there for the hell of it, rather than any real reason. I dunno. It’s like...I want to like this, because who doesn’t like a good hero team-up, but at the same time, objectively, and even a little subjectively, I really have to admit it’s no more meaningful and entertaining than the other paid DLCs in this game. It at least gives you a little more content than the previous packages have, but it also costs the most of all of them, so in the end...sorry to say, but I find Messiahs in the Diamond Realm about as lacking as the rest of this game’s paid DLCs.

Bah. What a disappointment. SMT4-2’s Downloadable Content is barely any better than its predecessor’s. The only DLC here that has a straightforward, untainted positive effect on the game that isn’t overpriced is the 3-part Lore update. I’m finding that JRPGs’ add-ons have an even lower success rate with me than the ones made on this side of the ocean.

7 comments:

"I’m finding that JRPGs’ add-ons have an even lower success rate with me than the ones made on this side of the ocean."

Western developers have been creating expansionary material for a much longer time, and the process is more refined and a bit less pander-y in my fairly narrow knowledge. OBVIOUSLY, you have good/great DLC in some Japanese and some hot garbage in western games, but magic like FE Echoes' season pass being $5 more than the game itself is not the business.

But to be honest, my career total DLC purchases round up to like $30, so I won't pretend to have a solid foundation in rating this content on a cost/value basis.

I suppose that's a fair point regarding our hometown developers having more experience, but I feel like the early days of Western DLC are still better by comparison. I wouldn't call the add-ons for Baldur's Gate 1 + 2, Icewind Dale 1, or Neverwinter Nights 1 anything amazing, but I'd say that they're all less of a waste of money and time, in addition to being more ethical, than the DLC collections for FE14 or SMT4-1 and 4-2.

I wonder if it has to do with making content people would be willing to pay more money for as opposed to extending the honeymoon period. Note that you've rated the DLC of Waifu Emblem and Shin Megami with the Fairly Hardcore Fanbase 4 compared to western RPGs that pride and sell themselves largely on the strength of their setting and lore, things you can't add to in ridiculous not-canon ways without compromising your hopefully long-term moneymaker.

Speaking of Echoes to save you some ire really only the with actual story (and the only one really worth getting) is the rise of the deliverance pack and maybe the cipher pack but that hasn't been released yet so IDK.

Other than that echoes is great though Celica suffers from Gaiden's old story the most

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